Dr. Haleh Esfandiari is currently the Director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. From 1995-1996, she was a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center. Dr. Esfandiari has taught Persian language at Oxford University. She also taught Persian language, contemporary Persian literature as well as courses on the women's movement in Iran while at Princeton University from 1980 to 1994. Prior to Princeton, she served as Deputy Secretary General of the Women's Organization of Iran. She was also the Deputy Director of a cultural foundation where she was responsible for the activities of several museums and art and cultural centers. She also worked as a journalist in Iran and taught at the College of Mass Communication in Tehran.

Dr. Esfandiari is the author of Reconstructed Lives: Women and Iran's Islamic Revolution (1997), editor of Iranian Women: Past, Present and Future (1977), the co-editor of TheEconomic Dimensions of Middle Eastern History (1990), and of the multi-volume memoirs of the famed Iranian scholar, Ghassem Ghani. Among her other writings are chapters in the books: In the Eye of the Storm: Women in Post-Revolutionary Iran (1992), Iran at the Crossroads (2001), Middle Eastern Women on the Move (2003) and Islam and Democracy in the Middle East (2003).

Her articles have appeared in essay collections in a number of books as well as in Foreign Policy, Journal of Democracy, Princeton Papers in Near Eastern Studies, New Republic, Wilson Quarterly, Chronicle of Higher Education and Middle East Review. Her Op-Ed pieces include “Held in My Homeland” (September 2007) and “Tehran's Self-Fulfilling Paranoia” (August 2009) in the Washington Post and "U.S. Hikers and Iran's Maze" (October 2010) in the Los Angeles Times. She has also written for blogs and websites such as the New York Review of Books Blog with “Iran’s Harshest Sentence for an Innocent Scholar” (October 2009), “Iran’s Women of War” (January 2010), “Iran’s Interrupted Lives” (September 2010), “Iran’s State of Fear” (March 2011), “In the Jaws of the Mullahs” (November 2011), and “Iran’s Man in the Middle” (June 2013), as well as “Why Iran Freed Roxana Saberi” (May 2009) in the Daily Beast, “Misreading Tehran: The Real Impact of the Elections” (June 2010) in Foreign Policy, “Iran: The State of Fear” (April 2011) in the New York Review of Books, “The End of Illusion” in the blog of the New Republic (October 2011), “Iran Curtails Female Education” in The Iran Primer blog (August 2012), “Breaking Taboos” in the Wilson Center’s Middle East Program’s Viewpoints series (November 2013), as well as pieces for the New York Times’ “Room for Debate” series (August 2013 and March 2014).

Dr. Esfandiari has also edited the proceedings of conferences sponsored by the Middle East Program which include: "Women in Central Asia: A Turn of the Century Assessment" (2001), "Symposium on Palestinian Refugees" (2001), “ Middle Eastern Women on the Move” (2001), "Intellectual Change and the New Generation of Iranian Intellectuals" (2001), "An Assessment of the Iranian Presidential Elections" (2002), “More Than Victims: The Role of Women in Conflict Prevention” (2002), “Winning the Peace: Women’s Role in Post-Conflict Iraq” (2003), “Post-Khatami Iran” (2004), “Women, Muslim Laws and Human Rights in Nigeria” (2004), “The ‘Strategic Partnership’ Between India and Iran” (2004), “Political Transition in Afghanistan: The State, Islam and Civil Society” (2004), “Building a New Iraq: Women’s Role in Reconstruction” (2004), “The Status of Women in the Middle East” (2005), "A Troubled Triangle: Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan" (2005), “Building a New Iraq: Ensuring Women’s Rights” (2005), "Iran After the June 2005 Presidential Election" (2005), “A View from the Region: Different Perspectives on Israel’s War with Lebanon’s Hizbullah” (2006), “Regional Strategies for Empowering Women” (2006), “Reformist Women Thinkers in the Islamic World” (2009), “Secularism in the Muslim Diaspora” (2009), “Vanguard: Women in the Iranian Election Campaign and Protest” (2009), “The Iranian Presidential Elections: What Do They Tell Us?” (2010), “Islamic Feminism and Beyond: The New Frontier” (2010), “Iran: Turmoil at Home, Assertiveness Abroad? (2011), “Is the Arab Awakening Marginalizing Women?” (2012), and “The Arab Awakening: Is Democracy a Mirage?” (2012).

Dr. Esfandiari is the first recipient of a yearly award established in her name, the Haleh Esfandiari Award. This award was presented to Dr. Esfandiari by a group of businesswomen and activists from countries across the Middle East and North Africa region on the occasion of a conference sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson Center, “Women Entrepreneurs: Business and Legal Reform in the MENA Region,” held in Amman, Jordan in May 2008. Her other awards include: a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation grant (1997); the Special American Red Cross Award (2008); the Women's Equality Award from the National Council of Women's Organizations (2008); and Miss Hall’s School Woman of Distinction Award (2009). In December 2008, she became one of three first annual recipients of the Project on Middle East Democracy’s “Leader for Democracy” award.

Dr. Esfandiari received her Ph.D. from the University of Vienna and holds an honorary degree from Georgetown University Law Center (2008). She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Dr. Esfandiari serves on the Board of the Peace Research Endowment and on the board of advisors for the Project on Middle East Democracy. She was featured in Parade magazine (May 2008), in O, the Oprah Winfrey magazine (November 2008), and in Vogue magazine (August 2009).

Her memoir, My Prison, My Home, based on Esfandiari’s arrest by the Iranian security authorities in 2007, after which she spent 105 days in solitary confinement in Tehran’s Evin Prison, was published in September 2009 by Ecco Press, an imprint of Harper Collins. The paperback edition was released in October 2010.

The Iranian judiciary has extended its detention of Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian by as much as two months. Haleh Esfandiari gives three possible reasons for the continued imprisonment of an innocent journalist. more

"Western negotiators and Iran had more than a year to reach a comprehensive deal. Despite repeated assertions that Nov. 24 was a firm deadline, it seems that neither side took the date seriously," write Haleh Esfandiari and Robert S. Litwak. more

"Parliamentarians’ renewed obsession with women’s dress and male-female workplace mixing represents a throwback to the early days of the Islamic revolution, when women who did not observe the Islamic dress code were subject to 70 lashes and when men and women were segregated in university classrooms, buses and elsewhere," writes Haleh Esfandiari. more

"Islamic State militants crossed a last possible boundary of decency by citing the Quran as authority for the barbarism they have been practicing against women. Equally disturbing, Arab leaders and the ulama, the clerical leaders of Islam, have been silent in the face of this effrontery," writes Haleh Esfandiari. more

"You should focus on 50% of the population, which is women, and see what is happening to them. You should mention them, you should have the courage to say 'yes this is done to our women; this is done to our sisters, daughters, wives...'" said Haleh Esfandiari. more

"These mixed messages suggest that the Iranian leadership is either split over relations with the United States and the handling of the ISIS crisis in Syria and Iraq, or that it hasn't decided exactly which positions to adopt at a time of rapid and unpredictable change," writes Haleh Esfandiari. more

"Arab and Muslim governments, vocal on the threat ISIS poses to regional stability, have been virtually silent on ISIS’s systemic degradation, abuse, and humiliation of women," writes Haleh Esfandiari. more

"This carnage should be an opportunity for Washington to work with responsible actors in the region. Arab League and Gulf Cooperation Council countries should take the lead and provide humanitarian and military aid in the form of air power and ground troops to defeat and uproot ISIS, as it is already a coming attraction for Jordan, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia," writes Haleh Esfandiari. more

The Iranian judiciary has extended its detention of Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian by as much as two months. Haleh Esfandiari gives three possible reasons for the continued imprisonment of an innocent journalist.

"Western negotiators and Iran had more than a year to reach a comprehensive deal. Despite repeated assertions that Nov. 24 was a firm deadline, it seems that neither side took the date seriously," write Haleh Esfandiari and Robert S. Litwak.

"Parliamentarians’ renewed obsession with women’s dress and male-female workplace mixing represents a throwback to the early days of the Islamic revolution, when women who did not observe the Islamic dress code were subject to 70 lashes and when men and women were segregated in university classrooms, buses and elsewhere," writes Haleh Esfandiari.

"Islamic State militants crossed a last possible boundary of decency by citing the Quran as authority for the barbarism they have been practicing against women. Equally disturbing, Arab leaders and the ulama, the clerical leaders of Islam, have been silent in the face of this effrontery," writes Haleh Esfandiari.

"You should focus on 50% of the population, which is women, and see what is happening to them. You should mention them, you should have the courage to say 'yes this is done to our women; this is done to our sisters, daughters, wives...'" said Haleh Esfandiari.

"These mixed messages suggest that the Iranian leadership is either split over relations with the United States and the handling of the ISIS crisis in Syria and Iraq, or that it hasn't decided exactly which positions to adopt at a time of rapid and unpredictable change," writes Haleh Esfandiari.

"This carnage should be an opportunity for Washington to work with responsible actors in the region. Arab League and Gulf Cooperation Council countries should take the lead and provide humanitarian and military aid in the form of air power and ground troops to defeat and uproot ISIS, as it is already a coming attraction for Jordan, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia," writes Haleh Esfandiari.

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Lilia Labidi, Minister of Women's Affairs for the Republic of Tunisia, and Moushira Khattab, former Minister of Family and Population for Egypt, discussed the role and expectations of women in the Egyptian and Tunisian revolutions, as well as issues to consider as these two countries move forward.

These are exhilarating times in the Middle East and North Africa. From the Green Movement in Iran to the Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia and other uprisings in the region, demonstrators are demanding their democratic dignity and the expansion of their rights as citizens. The desegregated nature of these massive demonstrations, in which throngs of women walk shoulder to shoulder with men and face batons and bullets with open hands and life-affirming words, is unprecedented. It is indeed a revolution within revolutions. It is an antidote to Islamic fundamentalism, a turning point in the contemporary history of Islam. These circulating women—visible, voiced, and mobile—are seasoned negotiators of confined spaces, veteran trespassers of walls, closed doors, and iron gates. They are an audacious moderating, modernizing force to be reckoned with. Milani discusses the complex interconnectedness between power, space, and physical mobility in the Islamic world in general and Iran in particular.

Sayed Mohammid Amin Fatimie, Afghanistan Minister of Public Health, highlights improvements to Afghanistan's healthcare system that have transpired during the U.S. presence, but adds that more time is needed to repair the problems and rebuild the system into one of transparency and efficacy.

The last week in Egypt was yet another breathtaking moment in the history of the Arab Spring. For the second time in two years, the Egyptian people have emerged victorious in a major confrontation with their government. Yet the road ahead is bumpy. Events in Egypt suggest that the Islamist ascendancy of the last few years has peaked and is now in decline. Yet the jury is still out on that question, and developments in Egypt will do much to answer it.

The essays in this report reflect an effort to provide background and context for understanding Iran's relations with Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and Venezuela; the articles emphasize the foreign policy objectives and strategies of Latin American nations as well as the strategic objectives of the Iranian government. Originally presented at a conference at the Woodrow Wilson Center in July 2008, the papers have since been revised, translated, and updated.

The 1979 Islamic Revolution transformed all areas of Iranian life. The state set out to restrict women’s hard-won legal and social rights and to dictate aspects of their lives, including their dress, education opportunities, and relations with men. In Reconstructed Lives, Iranian women tell in their own words what the revolution attempted and how they responded.

Haleh Esfandiari &#8211; Director of the Middle-East Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center and Larry Diamond &#8211; a Senor Fellow at the Hoover Institution and Professor of Political Science and Sociology at Stanford University

Haleh Esfandiari,
Consulting Director for the Middle East Project at the Wilson Center;
Nayereh Tohidi,
Associate Professor in the Dept. of Women's Studies at California State University;
Lilia Labidi,
Professor of Anthropology and Psychology at University of Tunis